


What are You Doing Kid?

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [21]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: ...but just one, Finding Nemo (Movies) References, May Knows What She's Doing, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Randomness, Somebody's In Trouble, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor, procrastination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-09-30 10:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20445608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: When Peter is grounded, Tony comes to try and negotiate his freedom.  Somehow that negotiation ends with him having to get the kid to do his own laundry.  ...which is far more exasperating than he thought it would be because this kid isactually a kid.





	What are You Doing Kid?

As Peter lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling he, once again, played the message Tony had left on his phone while he was at school. He'd already listened to it multiple times but like the glutton for punishment that he was, he sighed and hit the play button one more time. 

"_Hey, Kid! I'd say this is Tony but you already know that. Look, I want you to stop by the lab on Saturday morning, maybe around nine? I'm going to be heading out of town for a few weeks and I want you to look over some schematics before I go. We'll make a whole day of it. I'll feed you and everything. Anyway, see you on Saturday. Later, kid._"

As the man's voice rang through the room Peter groaned because it _wasn't fair_. This was going to be his last chance to see Tony for nearly a month and May wasn't letting him go. There wasn't even a good reason for him not to go. '_It's the principle of the matter, Peter._', she'd said as he begged to be let off the hook for one day. One day! He couldn't understand why she didn't see how important this was. 

Tony had just started inviting him over to the lab some and while Peter knew that May wasn't overly fond of the man, _he was_. More than that, he was pretty sure his mentor had become, sort of, fond of him as well. If the ruffling of his hair and constant teasing was any indication. He didn't have a lot to go on. He'd seen his mentor interact with very few people but something about the way the man treated him made him feel... special and not just because of his DNA. 

Between the annoyance, disappointment and maybe even a little bit of anger mingling unsettlingly in his head, Peter didn't fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning. As such, he didn't wake up until eleven, when his phone rang... and rang... and rang some more. Rolling over onto his stomach, Peter reached for his phone and blinked blearily at the screen. It took a moment too long for it to register that it was Tony but the second it did, he picked up in a rush. "Mis'er Stark?", he slurred sleepily into the receiver but before he could get any further his mentor's voice was booming into his ear. 

"What are you doing kid? I asked you to meet me here at nine and it after eleven.", the man said incredulously. He'd never had anyone stand him up before. It was one of the benefits of being, well, him. 

Pulling himself up into a sitting position, Peter tucked the phone under his chin and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "I left you a message, Mr. Stark. 'm sorry."

"A message? You left me a message? ...you know I don't check my messages. ... and why aren't you here. What could possibly be more important that me?"

Peter sighed because he really didn't want to be having this conversation. He was still tired and frankly the fact that he wasn't there was sort of a sore subject. "May said no."

"May said no.", Tony repeated as if those three words hadn't made any sense what so ever.

"Mm-hmm. She said I couldn't go, so I left you a message.", Peter repeated in an attempt to clear things up without going into any details. He sort of hoped that the man would say something along the lines of _'Oh, that's too bad. You can come by when I get home instead.'_, but of course, he couldn't let it go that easily.

After taking several seconds to try and figure out what he'd done to get on May's bad side this time. Having come up with nothing, Tony huffed. "Why would she tell you no, kid?"

Peter growled lightly in frustration before answering. "Just because. It's not a big deal, Mr. Stark.", he grumbled under his breath though he didn't know why he was still dodging the subject. It wasn't like Tony was going to quit asking him.

"Uh, it's a very big deal, kid. This is me we're talking about and I'm_ leaving _tomorrow. It's today or three weeks from now, so go talk to her again."

"I can't Mr. Stark!", Peter stressed his teeth. There was no way he could bring it up again. When May said no she meant it and he'd pushed it enough already.

"Why not?", Tony asked sounding more disgruntled by the second. "Come on, kid. What are you not telling me, here? Spill it."

Rolling his eyes despite the fact that the man couldn't even see the action, Peter sighed. "I'm grounded.", he mumbled so quietly that Tony was sure he'd misheard him.

It took a moment for Tony to try and process the words he was pretty sure the boy had just said to him but they weren't making any sense. "I'm sorry, you're what now?"

"Grounded. I'm grounded, Mr. Stark. There, are you happy now?", Peter haughtily returned because he was sure there was nothing worse than telling a literal superhero that you're grounded from leaving your room for the weekend.

Tony huffed a disbelieving laugh. "Wow. That's... that's something.", Tony replied with amusement. "What did you do?"

Making a point of keeping his voice as low as possible Peter took a deep breath before uttering his response. "I, uh, I didn't clean my room."

Rolling his eyes because, oh my God, this kid really was a kid, Tony laughed fully. "Just clean it up and get over here!", he shouted with something between annoyance and mirth.

"It doesn't work like that, Mr. Stark.", Peter hissed more out of embarrassment than anything else. Ironman had just told him to go clean his room and he was sure nothing else would ever top that.

"What do you mean it doesn't work like that?", Tony practically shouted. "Just make your bed and pick up your dirty underwear so you can be here by lunch."

"I already cleaned everything up but that doesn't make me any less grounded. I can't go out anywhere this weekend because _apparently_ I spend too much time out as it is since according to May, I can't seem to take my dishes to the sink or pick my stuff up off the floor!", Peter ranted a bit louder than he'd meant to, leaving Tony to dissolve into giggles. "It's not funny. It's annoying.", Peter blandly proclaimed.

"Okay, look. I'm going to be there in thirty minutes to spring you from the joint, alright. May's home right?", Tony asked pausing a moment to allow Peter to reply. "Great. Now, make sure that room is spotless and be ready to go."

Feeling more than a little skeptical, Peter agreed and went about his room making sure that everything was in its place before changing into the only clean shirt he could find. '_Maybe I should stuff up off of floor more often', _he thought as he dug through his nearly empty drawers and glared at what had just recently become an overflowing laundry basket. 

Half an hour later, Peter heard a knock on his front door and stilled. He'd spent the entire length of time between now and when the phone call had ended trying to decide how this was going to go. Not many people had the power to withhold from Tony whatever it was he wanted but in this case what he wanted wasn't something he could buy. 

Listening carefully he could hear May's surprise as she answered the door. "Tony? What are you doing here? We didn't have anything scheduled for today and I know Peter told you that he's grounded so to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"That's sort of what I'm here about.", Tony said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What? My pleasure? ...because _I assure_ you that was an expression but I'm going to go ahead and assume you meant Peter's grounding."

"Exactly.", Tony said in his most business-like tone. He wasn't even going to dignify the first part of her response. There were more important things on the table. Like getting what he wanted. "I need the kid today. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to grab him so that we can go eat lunch and get to work before I have to leave for California."

"Uh, I do mind actually.", May replied, eyebrows raised and arms resting over her chest. "He's grounded and just because_ you want to see him_ doesn't make him ungrounded."

"Come on, May! He said he was done.", the man practically whined causing Peter to have to stifle a laugh. He sounded almost as disappointed as Ned had the time he'd been grounded on the opening night of the last Star Wars Movie. Listening to a grown man bargain for his freedom was almost hilarious when he thought about it. "You can let him come over for the afternoon he can go back to being locked away in his tower when he gets home."

"He told you he was done?", May asked with amusement.

All fo a sudden Tony was actually nervous. He'd just sort of assumed the kid wouldn't lie to him about that and now he was questioning it. "Well, yeah.", he said with as much confidence as he could at the moment but it faltered. "Isn't he?"

"He might think he's done...", May suggested with a laugh. "...but that's because I haven't told him that he's doing his own laundry this time, yet."

Having already decided that this was fixable Tony began to spit out a plan to relieve both May and Peter from laundry duty, thus allowing him to have access to the kid for the afternoon. Only he didn't even get to finish before May was cutting him off. "I'll have it taken care of. I have a service that can come by and pick it up, they'll have it back to you in--"

"--Tony! This isn't about me not doing it. It's about him having consequences.", she half-shouted in amusement more than anything else. 

Feeling somewhat defeated, Tony tried again to reason. He was about to leave town! Surely that should count for something. It wasn't like they could reschedule for next weekend. "Okay, look. I get it that you want to teach him how to be responsible or whatever--"

"--A functioning member of society is more like it. _Some of us_ have to actually do _our own_ laundry.", May said with a genuine smile, still very amused by the idea that Tony thought he could just buy her nephew out of his chores. 

"Are you implying that I don't?", Tony asked his one eyebrow quirked in question. It wasn't like he'd never done his own laundry. He had in college. Most of the time... sometimes... Okay, hardly ever but he wasn't sure why it mattered at the moment.

"That's exactly what I'm implying.", May returned, matching Tony's disbelieving tone.

There was a moment of silence before Tony finally spoke up again and this time it was in defeat. "Okay, fine. That's fair but I do know how. _It's not that complicated._"

"Good. Then here's the deal.", May said, suddenly struck by an idea that could be something of a compromise. "You can take Peter _and all of his dirty laundry_ with you--

"--May, I--", Tony interjected, wide-eyed at the implication but whatever he was going to say was taken over by May who was still eager to get her part in.

"--_and then_ he can do his work while you to play with your toys or whatever.", she said with a laugh. The idea of Tony and Peter doing laundry together was an image she couldn't picture without dissolving into giggles. 

About that time Peter appeared in the hallway, having decided that things were going well enough for him to do so. There was no real argument and it seemed like May was close to relenting even if it was with a less than ideal concession. At least he would be with Tony. That is if the man actually agreed to it. He half-expected him to balk at the idea and take off without him.

"Speak of the little devil.", May said once she spotted Peter lingering at the end of the hallway. "Did hear all of that? You can go play--"

"--work. We work, May.", Peter corrected before he could stop himself. He definitely did not _play_ in Tony's workshop. The man was adamant that he take everything in there very seriously... mostly seriously... he wasn't allowed to goof around with the equipment anyway. _ There were rules._

Laughing at the indignant correction, May breezed over the proposal once more but not without adding a few amendments. "You can go _work_ with Tony as long as you two get your laundry done. Washed, dried and folded. On your own! No services, no ...robots or whatever"

While Tony miserably nodded his head, Peter cocked his to the side in thought. "I wonder if DUM-E could fold laundry...", he mused quietly as he tried to imagine how that would work. 

"Trust me, kid. You don't really want to test that.", Tony stated blandly. As much as he would love to give it a try, the chances of the bot completely screwing it up were pretty high.

"Do we have a deal, boys?", May finally asked after several moments of quiet.

"_Yes._", they both groaned in unison as May smiled back at them.

~o~o~o~o~o~

A little over half and hour later, Peter was running down the hall from the laundry room, that he didn't even know existed until that day, to the lab. "Mr. Stark!", he drawled out, his voice growing tighter and higher as he extended they syllables. "I think I messed up!", he called loudly from the doorway causing Tony to startle slightly.

"Messed up? Messed up how?", Tony asked with mild trepidation. He'd sent the kid to switch the laundry over to the drier not even ten minutes ago. What on Earth could have possibly gone wrong in that amount of time? Moving clothes from one machine to another wasn't rocket science _and the kid could do rocket science._

Looking like something between mortified and petrified Peter replied, "Maybe, maybe you should just come and look."

Sighing, he got up from what he was doing and started towards where Peter was still shifting nervously on his feet. Once they got to the laundry room, Tony groaned. "What did you do, kid?" There were suds and water everywhere. Streaming down the machine, pooling across the floor, and ever so slowly flowing into the small drain cut into the middle of the tile. It would have been comical if it wasn't so irritating. "How much soap _did you use_? It's a mess in here."

"I, uh...", Peter began to stutter. "It, it was a lot of clothes and, well, your machine is bigger than ours so I used, you know... more."

"How much do you use in your's?", Tony asked because really he had no idea what a reasonable amount of detergent looked like. Anytime he had to do laundry for whatever reason, FRIDAY walked him through it. He didn't do it often enough to actually make an effort to memorize the steps.

"Half a cap"

That didn't sound like much, Tony thought as he looked the kid over with his brows knit together. "How much did you use here?"

"Um... two", Peter replied staring directly at the floor, watching the soapy water slowly spiral into the drain.

"Two halves? Like one whole lid full?", Tony asked in confusion because that didn't really sound completely unreasonable and he couldn't figure out how the mess had occurred.

Twisting the toe of his shoe into the floor, Peter sighed. "No... um, two, two cap fulls.", he quietly answered, suddenly realizing how much soap that actually was. The washer wasn't _that_ much bigger than the one at the apartment. He'd been in a hurry and not really thought that through.

Unable to do anything but laugh, Tony shook his head and placed a hand on his hips. "Alright. So let's, let's go get the wet/dry shop vac and get this cleaned up, yeah?" Then, as Peter took off running to acquire the requested appliance, Tony looked at the still soapy clothing in the washer and set it to rinse again hoping that didn't cause any further puddles.

By the time Tony had walked Peter through pumping all of the water off of the floor the clothes were rinsed and ready to be moved. "Maybe we should double-check with FRIDAY before we do this. What do you think, kiddo?", Tony asked even though he was pretty sure there was no way to mess up dryer settings. Then again, Peter always had a way of discovering new ways to cause unintentional chaos.

"Yeah. Maybe", Peter said with a blush to his cheeks because he'd not even considered asking the AI for any assistance before. Asking how much soap to use probably would have been a more reasonable idea than guessing.

With everything finally situated they moved back into the lab. "alright, kid. We've wasted a lot of time here. Let's try to get something done before you're locked into folding all that stuff.", Tony suggested as he pulled up the schematics for the latest Spider-suit. "Now, obviously we can't fabricate anything until I get back but I want your opinion. If there's anything else you want to add we can talk about it."

They bounced around ideas for about an hour before FRIDAY was announcing that the laundry was dry. Peter huffed and groaned at the interruption and looked pleadingly at his mentor. "Can't you help me, _please_?", he asked. "At least come keep me company? It's going to take _forever_!"

Frowning and squinting his eyes, Tony pointed his finger directly at the boy's chest. "This is your own fault you know.", he accused causing the boy's smile to falter but only slightly. "You didn't clean your room, then I somehow got stuck cleaning up a bubbly mess--"

"--but think about it! Now the floor is clean.", Peter interjected with a smile. Looking at the bright side was a good thing, right?

"Pete. I never go in there. The floor was _already clean_ but sure, whatever helps you sleep tonight.", Tony said with a sigh as he started to once again get up from the work he'd been trying to do. "...Fine. I'm coming."

Back in the laundry room, Peter dumped all of the clothes unceremoniously onto the large wooden table. "You know, if you _did help me_ we could get done twice as fast.", Peter suggested with a hopeful smile.

Without saying a word, Tony grabbed a t-shirt from the pile and started to haphazardly fold it and set it aside. The kid wasn't wrong. It would be faster if he helped and then they could be _done _and, oh my God, he wanted to be done. "I swear, kid. You had better never let this happen again. Tony Stark does not_ do laundry_."

"It will never happen again, I swear.", Peter promised before sighing. "I'll be right back."

"What do you mean, you'll be right back! Get back over here. I did _not_ agree to do this _for you_.", Tony half-shouted because was not about to get duped into doing the kid's chores for him. 

"_I'm going to the bathroom!_", Peter stressed from the doorway in defense.

"Really, kid? We get to the tedious part of the job and all of a sudden you desperately need to pee?", Tony deadpanned.

"I'll be back in _two minutes_! You don't even have to _do anything_ while I'm gone_."_

Relenting, Tony waved the kid off towards the bathroom and went back to slowly building up his pile. Only the kid _wasn't_ back in two minutes. In fact, a good ten minutes had passed and Peter was still nowhere in sight. Grumbling under his breath about '_what did this kid think he was trying to pull',_ Tony started down the hall. The bathroom was only a few doors down so he checked there first. When there was no teenager in sight, he continued down the hall towards the lab only to find that empty too. "FRIDAY? Where did the kid go?", he asked in annoyance which was only exacerbated when the AI indicated that the boy was in the common floor kitchen.

Walking into the kitchen, he found Peter standing in front of the microwave..._ happily humming to himself_ as he watched the numbers count down. "Kid!", Tony shouted causing the boy to literally leap onto the ceiling. "What are you doing? I thought you had to pee and were coming right back."

"I did. ...but then I thought we might want some popcorn. For you know... while we folded.", Peter replied innocently as if he'd not been missing for the past twenty minutes.

Feeling exasperated, Tony placed his hands on his hips and stared at Peter who was slowly lowering himself back to the floor. "You mean while_ I folded_ because so far, I'm the only one who's done any of it."

"Well, I said you didn't have to do anything while I was gone.", Peter guardedly returned. It wasn't like he'd _asked_ Tony to do it for him.

"You were only supposed to be gone for two minutes!", Tony half-shouted. He wasn't mad so much as he was just starting to lose his patience. Not that he had a lot, to begin with. This was not how the day was supposed to go.

"I... look, it's ready.", Peter said as the microwave dinged and he was taking out the steaming bag. "We can go finish it now."

"Oh, no. I'm done. You're finishing it.", Tony firmly stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

"...but--", Peter started.

"--No buts.", Tony finished before rubbing his thumb and forefinger under his eyes. He'd not expected the day to be so... exhausting. "You know?", he asked tiredly. "I'm starting to understand why you were grounded."

"Mr. Stark...", Peter whined as the man took the popcorn from him and grabbed him by the shoulder to physically guide him back in the direction of the elevator. "You're supposed to be on my side..."

"Mm-hmm... Never has the name 'kid' ever been more accurate.", Tony said without humor as Peter honest to God pouted at the accusation. "Now go! ..._before I ground you_."

Squinting his eyes in the man's direction, Peter sighed. "You know, you're not being very nice."

"Nice?", Tony said with a genuine laugh. "Me? I'm not being very nice? Kid, you_ left me _folding _your_ laundry for you."

"To make you some popcorn.", Peter replied with a smile. 

Tony just stared at the seemingly amused boy for the entire elevator ride back down, not saying a word until the doors opened back up. "Alright, Captain Procrastination, you aren't leaving that room until you're done."

Sighing and resigning himself to his fate, Peter plopped down on the bench and began to fold while Tony leaned on the doorframe eating the popcorn. It didn't actually take that long once he actually sat down to do it. Then again, maybe he was just in a hurry to get to the popcorn _he'd made_ before his mentor finished it all. "Okay. I'm done. Can I have the popcorn back now?"

Tony haded it over with a smirk and looked at the time. It was already six and he had promised to have the kid home before dinner. "Kid... you... we got _nothing_ done!", Tony half-laughed. The whole point of having the kid over had been to look over schematics with him and they had maybe gotten an hour of that in. It was almost comical... _almost._

Looking only slightly sheepish, Peter followed his mentor to the garage. "I had fun spending time with you today.", he said with a smile.

"Uh-huh.", Tony replied with a roll of his eyes but really he'd had fun too. A little bit. Not the cleaning up the suds part... or the folding part but... the _little_ in-between parts where they got to actually talk and mess around in the lab. "I swear when I get back you had _better not_ be any kind of grounded because _we are not_ doing _that_ again."

"Never again.", Peter swore with a vigorous nod of his head.

~o~o~o~o~o~

When they got back the apartment May was there sitting at the table with a cup of tea and a magazine. "Oh, you're back. I see you got everything done.", she said with a smile in their direction.

Peter nodded before going to put the basket away, while Tony squinted his eyes in May's direction. "Sure. Eventually. Of course, not much else got done because...", Tony said before pointing accusingly towards Peter's room. "...your kid is a _delay fish_."

"Did you just reference Finding Nemo?", May asked with a surprised laugh.

"Yes. Which is _also his fault_! He _insisted_ we watch it last weekend."

Having re-entered the room just in time to hear the accusation Peter laughed. "Oh come on, Mr. Stark! You liked it _and you know it_."

"That is neither here nor there, kid.", Tony replied with a wave of his hand before checking the time and tiredly smiling towards Peter. "I need to go. I'll see you in three weeks", he said, offering a small side hug before placing a finger right in the middle of the boy's chest. "...and you had better keep your room clean while I'm gone or... or something..."

"Okay!", Peter grumbled under his breath because once again, _Ironman_ was telling him to clean his room. "I already said I would, _dad_.", he added sarcastically causing May to laugh and Tony to freeze on the spot.

Looking quietly between May who was practically cackling and Peter who seemed to be somewhere between mortified and amused, Tony started going through a mental check-list. _'Told the kid to clean his room? check. Forced the kid to do his chores? check. Reestablished the rules with a vague threat? double check.' _ He couldn't even argue. "Well, okay then.", he said with a clap of his hands. "On that note. I'm going to head out." Then after very little thought, he looked directly at Peter with a smile tugging at his lips. "Talk to you later, _son._ Listen to your aunt while I'm gone.", he finished, darting out the door before Peter could protest because after the day he'd just had... he figured he'd _earned_ that title and was defiantly going to own it.

**Author's Note:**

> This started out in one direction and ended up in another. It's not my favorite work that I've ever done but there are some parts that I really loved and couldn't bear to delete...
> 
> I hope you liked it good enough. :)


End file.
